It seems like autumn came before we knew it this year, and it came with a fresh awakening as we suddenly anticipate what the end of the year holds. With Thanksgiving plans and holiday gatherings underway, this time of year can also bring much stress and even sickness in lieu of all the preparations, and we must not forget about the importance of winterizing our homes in order to care for the ones we love.
As we get ready for slower cozy days and soup weather, there's just a few things we can do to get our homes ready for the colder months ahead to ensure a happy and healthy home life outside of the festive decorations and cozy ambience. It's ultimately about getting our homes winter-ready; to create the safe-haven during a time where it seems all of nature is at its state of rest and hibernation, regaining strength before it can spring back up again. Our health, happiness and ability to enjoy our days at home depend on the preparations we make and how we live on a day to day basis to ensure a joyous and relaxed time with our loved ones.
Here are some ways you can set up your home to support the mental, emotional and physical health of you and your loved ones for the colder months ahead.
Evaluate your home to-do list and commitments
Home projects are exciting to plan and accomplish this time of year but I usually find myself having a longer list than I can complete before the holidays come! It makes it a bit more doable when I'm able to sit down and write out all I want to accomplish and plan them around my weeks to ensure I'm not over-extending myself. It's the same with commitments. I like to be mindful about my daily and weekly commitments, ensuring rest and recovery time, family down time, meal prep time, home-care time such as laundry and other chores. It makes it easier on the mind and body in the long haul when we can take time to sit down and write in a weekly as well as monthly calendar. Then, having it in a visible place you can refer to it daily can help keep you on track. It is possible to accomplish what you want to get done while protecting your capacity and peace (and the peace of your home) by reducing stress with placing healthy boundaries around your need for rest and enjoyment this holiday season!
Make a Cleaning Schedule
As well as having a calendar for all the external commitments, having a "home-care" schedule can be really helpful to take another thing off your mind and can actually help you slow down in the rush of the holidays. What a perfect time to romanticize your house chores while staying on top of cleanliness and tidiness! Whether it's an every-Saturday-kind-of-schedule or where you take 15 minutes to tidy the house after the kids go down for a nap, having a plan on how to have your home clean and tidy will help support your mental and physical health. It can be easy to forget that this is the time of year where cold and flu season are at their prime... but staying on cleanliness and having a plan can help prevent stress and sickness while also preserving more memorable family time.
Declutter before the Holidays
This might be added to your cleaning routine, but save yourself the trouble of evaluating what you don't need before Christmas comes. When you and other family members are living in a shared space, it can be easy to let the clutter build up and save it for a later time, but can easily be prevented by regular decluttering and tidying as you go. A simple routine of decluttering one little area everyday for 15 minutes is a great start! Maybe it's a junk drawer you've been putting off; maybe it's the toy room that is spilling out into other rooms and needs some reorganizing. This is your time to put on your fall playlist, put some essential oils in your diffuser and make your house a bit more homey and breathable for all who are sharing the space!
Pickup non-toxic and natural cleaners & essential oils
Many of the earth's seasonal gifts to us including citrus, cinnamon, clove and all the other rich spices are big immunity boosters and help ward off germs and sickness. With everyone spending a little more time indoors, whatever we ingest can affect our health immensely in the short-haul and long term. Take this time and part ways with the toxic chemical cleaners and switch to more natural and effective solutions. Mixing vinegar and essential oils and using it as an all-purpose cleaner is effective and safe for the whole family. You can find many natural alternatives on Pinterest, Youtube and even Google! Pick up some holiday spice essential oils and have your home smell warm and festive!
Let in fresh air and keep it fresh
Just 5 minutes of letting the morning fresh air in promotes better lung health, digestion, energy, mood, concentration and a stronger immune system. Even with it being 40 degrees outside, let out the stale air and let in the fresh air for just 5 minutes every morning for better health. If you like to keep the heater on during the daytime, switch out your air filters to optimize your air quality and overall health for the whole family.
Stock up the rainbow foods
It's soup season and theres a reason for that! It's as if somebody knew that you needed a lot of nutrients in one pot all at once to boost our systems at a time when they could easily be weakened! Winter is also the time where comfort food is most popular and enjoyed but too many processed foods and carbohydrates can weaken the immune system and lead to other health issues. Making sure that we are getting much of our nutrition from actual food that is in all colors of the rainbow is key. Yellow, orange and red foods are high in vitamin C, A, and potassium and antioxidants. Eating greens help with heart health, vision, and strong teeth and bones, while blue foods improve urinary tract health, memory function, and healthy aging. We need all of the colors for a whole and complete body! You can check out my blog post here on top healthy dinner recipes for some ideas!
Set up your care stations
Even though our body gets rest in many ways, we still need rhythms of movement and care in other ways. With the dry winter air, our skin loses moisture, and indoor heating systems can lead to dry and itchy skin. We may love catching up on our winter tv shows and holiday Hallmark movies, but our body still needs movement for blood circulation and boost our immune systems as well as fight off seasonal depression. Whether you have a garage gym or just a yoga mat, having a space to release stress and toxins through movement is vital. Your body, skin, and mental, and emotional health all need care. Even having a space just to enjoy hobbies can be a way of caring for yourself! Do you have a space where you go to take your vitamins? How about a reading corner to unwind from a long day? What kind of care are you needing and how can you set up your home to care for you?
Set up a family fun area
When we think of fall and winter, we often think of the slow-ness and rest but I'm not sure I hear of the word "fun" as associated with winter as I hear it being associated with summer. But fun is essential to our everyday whole well-being and even connectedness with the ones we love. There are actually many benefits to having fun! We tend to sleep better, have improved mental health, improved relationships, increased creativity, and our problem solving as well as our morale. Maybe it's playing Jenga as a family, or learning a new skill as a family or instrument together... whatever it is, make sure it's FUN for the whole family and age and developmentally realistic so all members of the family can participate.
Refresh your child's play area
There's no one else like parents who feel for their children in the colder months. Although getting out is essential even in winter, it's not as accessible as it is in the warmer months and so a child's play area is necessary for a child to thrive mentally, emotionally and physically. This is the perfect time to pull out the Christmas books (and if you rotate toys) to reorganize their kid-friendly play room in a way that makes it easily engaging and somewhat new for the holiday season! Maybe you have busy boys who need a climbing structure or a play couch to jump on, maybe you need a table and chairs for your growing toddler to play with playdough or color... whatever your child needs, now is the perfect time to revamp and organize their space specifically to them and their overall well-being.
Keep your spaces low-maintenance
Above all else, being intentional and mindful about your home and decorating is key. Sometimes we can forget all the hard work we put while our spaces accumulate clutter and too many things. Even with setting up Christmas decorations it can be easy to go all out and then feel like we have to maintain everything (I know I like my share of extra pillows and baskets lying around)! The goal for Christmas decorating is to create an environment that your whole family can be immersed in the awe and wonder of Christmas without feeling like they can't touch anything or feel overwhelmed by the amount. Our environment plays a huge part on our mental and emotional health more than we realize, especially when we are spending more time indoors. If you have to keep readjusting or maintaining, you can ask yourself if you're ok with the upkeep it requires. You can also simplify your storage solutions and keep your space breathable yet inviting, which will play a huge part into helping your home feel most enjoyable and low-maintenance. When in doubt, simple is better, keeping the decor and organization to what feels right for your home and your family's needs.
There's no greater feeling than looking around your home, and knowing that feeling of coziness and wonder, where you can't wait to nestle in and enjoy being at home. It takes incredible intentionality but yet can be accomplished in the smallest tasks and efforts. Overwhelm doesn't have to be our memory from the holidays, but preparing our homes to care for us can be our greatest decision when it comes to holiday preparations. Whether it's making sure we have a cleaning schedule in place, a welcoming kids play area, letting in the fresh air, setting up some care stations, or stocking our fridge and pantry full of nutritious options, you are setting up your home to take care of you and your loved ones.
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